25/08/2017
[25/08, 08:16] Thirupathi Reddy: The festival celebrates him the god of good beginnings, prosperity and obstacle remover. It is observed throughout India, especially as a public event in the western states of India such as Maharashtra,Telangana,Gujarat and Chhattisgarh,[1][5] usually as a private home festival in other states such Goa,Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.[6] At public venues, along with the reading of texts and group feasting, athletic and martial arts competitions are held.[7] It is unclear when the festival started, it may have South Indian origins, but historical evidence suggests it became a major social and public event with sponsorship of Shivaji after Muslim-Hindu (Mughal-Maratha) wars, and again in the 19th century after public appeal by Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak,[8] who championed it as a means to circumvent the colonial British government ban on Hindu gatherings through its anti-public assembly legislation in 1892.
[25/08, 08:16] Thirupathi Reddy: According to others such as Kaur, the festival became a public event later, in 1892 when Bhausaheb Laxman Javale ( also known as Bhau Rangari), installed the first sarvajanik (public) Ganesha idol in Pune.[25] In 1893, the Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak praised the celebration of sarvajanik Ganesha utsav in his newspaper, Kesari, and dedicated his efforts to launch the annual domestic festival into a large, well-organised public event.[26] Tilak recognized Ganesha's appeal as "the god for everybody",[27] and according to Robert Brown, he chose Ganesha as the god that bridged "the gap between Brahmins and non-Brahmins", thereby building a grassroots unity across them to oppose British colonial rule.[28]
Other scholars state that the British Empire, after 1870 out of fear of seditious assemblies, had passed a series of ordinances that banned public assembly for social and political purposes of more than 20 people in British India, but exempted religious assembly for Friday mosque prayers under pressure from the Indian Muslim community. Tilak believed that this effectively blocked the public assembly of Hindus whose religion did not mandate daily prayers or weekly gatherings, and he leveraged this religious exemption to make Ganesh Chaturthi to circumvent the British colonial law on large public assembly.[8][9][6] He was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions in Bombay Presidency, and other celebratory events at the festival.[29][note 1]
God Ganesha: political obstacle remover
Why shouldn't we convert the large religious festivals
into mass political rallies?
—Lokmanya Tilak, Kesari, 8 September 1896[34]
According to Richard Cashman, Tilak recruited and passionately committed himself to god Ganesha after the 1893 Hindu-Muslim communal violence in Bombay and the Deccan riots, when he felt that the British India government under Lord Harris had repeatedly taken sides and not treated Hindus fairly because Hindus were not well organized.[35] In Tilak's estimate, Ganesha worship and processions were already popular in rural and urban Hindu populations, across social castes and classes in Baroda, Gwalior, Pune and most of the Maratha region in the 18th century.[36] In 1893, Tilak helped expand Ganesh Chaturthi festival into a mass community event and a hidden means for political activism, intellectual discourse, poetry recitals, plays, concerts, and folk dances.
[25/08, 08:16]
Thirupathi Reddy: "Happy vinayaka chavithi"
